Full Circle
by Melrose Stormhaven
Summary: IchiRuki Onesided ByaRuki. The Kuchikis have their own traditions for everything, even with love. Byakuya ponders on how Kuchikis fall in love. His time came with Hisana and her sister. Now it was Rukia's turn.


**Disclaimer: **Bleach belongs to the one and only Kubo Taito or Tite. Merely ganking the characters for my own personal happiness.

**Title:** **Full Circle**

**Pairings:** Depends. Could IchiRuki or ByaRuki. With bits of ByaHis

**Author:** twistedsheets10 aka melrose10

**Ratings:** PG-13

**Warnings:** Set in the same universe as my other, multi-part ByaRuki fic, _Again_. No need to read _Again_ to understand this one, but I'm not going to stop you from reading the other fic if you like. :D Sort of Byakuya POV.

**Author's notes:** The Kuchikis have their own traditions for everything, even with love. Byakuya ponders on how Kuchikis fall in love. His time came with Hisana and her sister. Now it was Rukia's turn.

**Full Circle**

It is said that no one loves as fiercely as one who bears the name Kuchiki does.

For a love like theirs, no rules or traditions are strong and sacred enough not to break for its sake. It is a love that shatters and breaks in one breath, and molds and remakes in another. Life and death mean little to it, as do peace and chaos, good and evil. It consumes and feeds the soul, and takes what it wants, whatever the consequence, regardless of time.

Kuchiki Byakuya had not believed this tale when his father had told him of this at his mother's deathbed. He refused to believe even when his father, who had been in the full peak of his strength, suddenly followed his wife to the grave only a few days after she had passed on, leaving all his responsibilities in Byakuya's young lap.

The Kuchiki _always_ followed the rules, for if they did not, who would enforce them and serve as an example among the people in Seireitei? He'd been taught that since he slid out of his mother's womb and thrust into the arms of duties and obligation. For a Kuchiki to break the very rules they had worked so assiduously to impose on the world, for such an absurd emotion as love, was inconceivable.

He soon forgot his father's words. He grew up and persisted with his life, rising high among the shinigami, eventually becoming a captain, all the while cocooned in the ancient rules and traditions and duties, sheltered from the harsh winds of reality and emotions.

With one thing and another, time passed, slow and inexorable. Then, when Byakuya least expected it, Hisana came into his life.

_Hisana_. The sentiments she evoked from him had been so strange and unknown to him, that for months, when he thought of those emotions, he could not name them, but could only see her face and hear the pounding of his heart, feel the heat coursing in his blood.

_Hisana._ She was nothing remarkable, truly. Dark-haired, like those of the death butterfly's wings spread in flight. She was a tiny, delicate thing as well, with bird-like bones, thin and fragile. A mere slip of a girl, a commoner from Inuzukai, but with such sad eyes and even a sadder smile.

It only took one look, and he knew then he would do everything in his power to make her happy, to erase the grief in her eyes, and give her only joy.

He thought she was the proof—his feelings for Hisana were what he had imagined his father's tale on a Kuchiki's love would or should be. For her, he fought against his elders, against the very reason of his existence. When they were finally wed, he had thought he would be happy. Surely a love as passionate as his would yield the greatest fulfillment.

But as such with stories of such love, his was destined for tragedy and heartbreak.

In the end, what he had to give had not been enough. His love was no match to the sickness that devoured Hisana's life, nor was his love equal to the guilt that wasted her soul. All his love could do was give her his promise, to shelter, protect and care for a sister abandoned and lost, to be the brother he was never meant to be.

And that was how Rukia entered his world.

Even before they met, even before Hisana died, Byakuya could not help but resent and want her at the same time. If she was the one thing that would give his wife joy, then he would gladly seek her, yet, he secretly loathed this phantom that hovered between him and his wife.

Months after Hisana died, in a twist of cruel luck, he found her in the Academy, running around with an uncouth red-headed creature named Renji. Time seemed to still the first time he'd seen her. It was her, the younger sister. There could be no mistake.

_Rukia_. The babe Hisana had abandoned, the one who truly owned Hisana's heart and soul.

When Rukia was finally adopted into the Kuchiki, after he had once again broken rules left and right for the sake of his late wife, he promised to his parents' grave that this would be the last time. In the aftermath of Hisana's death, he sought his comfort in them—the endless rules and duties, settling himself in their cold embrace. Perhaps if he followed them again, in time, he would forget, and would never again need to take part in certain Kuchiki traditions. He was not fated for that.

_Rukia._ He tried his best to care for her as he had promised his late wife, while at the same time distancing himself from her. Yet, while he remained outwardly calm and cool and indifferent towards her, inwardly, he was full of contradicting emotions, each one as fierce and as mad as the other.

Whether she did it purposefully or not, she was always occupying his thoughts one way or the other, never leaving him be. She was everything and nothing like her sister—in truth, she was _more_. How fitting that she looked like Hisana, only more resilient and passionate than Hisana could ever be, and possessing of a spark of life that glowed from her eyes, something that his late wife never had.

When she called him 'Niisama', part of him wanted to erase that word from her mind, her lips, but another part warned him of the consequences of his actions, and reminded him of his vows and of who Rukia was supposed to be.

Perhaps these feelings could be part of the reason why relations between him and Rukia was strained. Rukia's eyes lost their glow when she was in his presence, much like a flower wilts under the oppressing brilliance of the sun. She was quiet and dutiful, eager to please.

Perhaps he should have been concerned why she was acting this way, as a brother should, but he was not one, and he didn't know how to be one. He concerned himself with protecting her by the only way he knew how. So, he had her assigned in the least most dangerous place and position in the Thirteen Divisions.

There, Rukia met Kaien, the brother Byakuya should have been, but never could be. Rukia admired and loved him and his wife, and it seemed that the spark was coming back into her eyes.

Sadly, it was not meant to last. In the end, Rukia killed Kaien. And when he died, he took a part of Rukia's soul with him.

Byakuya hated him and Ukitate for that.

Seasons came and went, and he and Rukia both immersed themselves in their duties, while enclosing them within their own thick, glass walls.

Then, the boy came to their lives.

_Kurosaki Ichigo_. How fitting that he looked like Kaien, as fiery and insolent as he had been. The boy burned with a will and determination that exceeded those of any man he had known. Ichigo was the one who protected her when Byakuya could not, the one who broke the rules when he could not, the one who loved her the way Byakuya never should have. And Rukia loved the boy back. For him, Rukia gave up her powers, even her very life and heart. Ichigo was the second chance she never wanted to let go, her only hope that her sins could be forgiven.

How odd that their lives were mirrors of the other. It was if he and Rukia were living similar lives, yet Byakuya knew that could not be possible. They were different people, with different circumstances, yet somehow, they were mimicking each other's lives.

He was so disquieted by this notion that when Rukia finally wed the boy, Byakuya only gave her a brisk congratulations and a warning: cherish the time you have with each other, no matter how brief and mundane it seems at the time. The boy had scowled at him, but Rukia smiled and thanked him. She was only too aware of what he meant.

Years passed, and Rukia led a life of contentment, lulled with the thought that she was finally redeemed of her sins, until one day, when the boy became the monster his predecessor had been.

Now Rukia stood before him, dressed in the blood-streaked furs of the white fox that was her sword's avatar, a mad goddess of old with her hot eyes and achingly lips. Her pale blade gleamed wetly with the crimson trails of his and her blood. Rukia held her zanpakutou with practiced ease. Her movements were swift and sure, her blows quick and accurate, legacies of her training with Kaien, and later, much later, with Byakuya.

Her world of ice and snow and blood rippled with malevolent purpose, responding to its mistress' icy displeasure. The very ground of Soul Society shook before her fury and the skies above them grew black and heavy.

"Come no nearer, Niisama, or I shall have to harm you."

All this, for her love of a mere boy, a love with a fate that was as bleak and as doomed as his own had been for her sister's.

Senbonzakura sang in his hand, sensing the terrible battle ahead. The air grew thick and alive with their spiritual pressures, blanketing over them, dark and oppressive. "It is hopeless, Rukia. The boy is gone. He has lost his heart and soul to the creature within him, and soon, if you continue this, he will also devour yours. You can not save him."

Beyond them, in the battlefield, the sounds of destruction and chaos roared in their ears.

"I know." Her voice was strong and clear. "But that is my burden alone. You will not interfere." She gave him a grim smile, her eyes full of strength and purpose.

He knew then he should not lose this fight. If he was defeated, one would die, but two souls would be lost. And he would not let that happen again. Everything has come into full circle. She promised. She loved. So does he. It was enough.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura!"

"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki!"

It is said that no one loves as fiercely as one who bears the name Kuchiki does. Byakuya is one, but then, so is Rukia.

With a storm of crimson snow and sakura, their world crashed and shattered. Above them, the sky, no longer able to bear its burden, wept.

**Disclaimer: **Why do I always write very long one-shots? headdesk

I hope you enjoyed this piece. I found it fascinating that for all his posturing of 'I always follow the rules', Byakuya broke a LOT of rules for the woman he loved, and looking at Rukia, she was also quite willing to break a LOT of rules for people she cared for.

Criticism and comments are most welcome.


End file.
